First published 2016
In 1631 Amsterdam, Sara de Vos becomes the first woman accepted into the Guild of St. Luke as a master painter. She creates a winter landscape called At the Edge of a Wood before disappearing from history. By the 1950s, only this single painting survives, hanging in the Manhattan bedroom of Marty de Groot, a wealthy descendant of the original owner. When the work is stolen, Marty hires someone to replace it temporarily. Enter Ellie Shipley, a struggling Australian graduate student in New York who needs money desperately. She agrees to forge the de Vos painting, a choice that will shadow her for decades. Fast forward to 2000: Ellie has become a respected art historian curating an exhibition of female Dutch painters. Both the original At the Edge of a Wood and her forgery threaten to surface at the same time, potentially destroying her career. As the three timelines converge, each woman faces the consequences of artistic ambition and the weight of choices made in desperation.
Genres: art, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, art-history
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: artistic-ambition, consequences-of-choices
Setting: Amsterdam, Manhattan, New York
Period: 1631, 1950s, 2000
304 pages · Hardcover · Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux